whats the hardest timber we have growing in Britain???

[Tom D]

Twisty beech, or elm, I'd say. or persian ironwood maybe...

[Mike Dempsey]

The greenheart would be the best choice for your purpose. I know it isn't a native timber but it is available. A local company here in Glenrothes which make a lot of bespoke stuff with the best of gear , running to several million pounds worth of machinery, wont touch it after it blunted saw blade after saw blade. They had to get a local tree surgeon to cut it with chainsaws to approx. sizes and then use the cnc machinery to plane it down to size. That job cost them money

[slack ma girdle]

Hawthorn, but i doubt you will get it big enough. I use a hawthorn mallet for laying paving slabs

[se7enthdevil]

i've considered greenheart and it may be something i could use but it does like to split and the club members don't want to get splinters. i already turned one from ekki but it started t crack and they didn't want it anymore.

 

alec, pear may be a possibility but it must be dry first... my book says it's the same weight as beech so that may be a cheaper bet.

[urbandekay]

What about laurel, makes great mallets

[se7enthdevil]

possible but if i found a bit big enough it would split badly.

 

the cherry laurel i've been turning recently has been hard enough but there were too many bits splitting.

 

anyone know of any 14" laurel stems?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

  Eddy_t said:

Thorns if you can find a big enough piece, oak, elm, yew is pretty damn tough, but by far the hardest I've found is seasoned plane, even a hydraulic splitter fights that!

 

 

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gotta admit i found some 2-3 year old plane in my new garden, ringed it then tried splitting, bloody iron!

 

Holly was used for gears, due to its tough nature and hard wear.

 

Yew, holm oak, Holly, Box, hornbeam, all good hard durable woods

[se7enthdevil]

i may be revising my opinion about robinia.

 

does anyone have bone dry 3"+ boards of 12" wide? short lengths are ok.

 

hornbeam is also desired as thats what the pins are made from.

[Peter]

Iv got a bit of gnarly beech that would fit the bill.

[se7enthdevil]

is it bone dry?